Pakistan PMO issues clarification after Shehbaz Sharif calls for 'serious talks' with PM Modi on Kashmir

Pakistan’s PMO has issued a “clarification” on prime minister Shehbaz Sharif’s statement over talks with India on Kashmir.

The move comes hours after Sharif in an interview said “Pakistan has learnt a lesson and wants to live in peace with India.”

Taking to Twitter, Pakistan PMO said, “the prime minister has repeatedly stated on record that talks can only take place after India has reversed its illegal action of August 5, 2019. Without India’s revocation of this step, negotiations are not possible.”

However the Prime Minister has repeatedly stated on record that talks can only take place after India has reversed its illegal action of August 5, 2019. Without India’s revocation of this step, negotiations are not possible. 2/3

— Prime Minister’s Office (@PakPMO) January 17, 2023

On 5 August 2019, Article 370 which gave ‘special status’ to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir was scrapped.

India’s decision evoked a strong reaction from Pakistan, which downgraded diplomatic ties and expelled the Indian envoy.

The statement by Pakistan PMO is in contrast to what Sharif had said earlier in an interview with the Dubai-based Al Arabiya news channel on Monday.

Pakistan has learnt a “lesson” and want to live in peace with India, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has said, emphasising that the two neighbours should not waste their resources on bombs and ammunition.

“We have three wars with India and it only brought more misery, poverty and unemployment to the people,” Sharif said.

My message to the Indian leadership and Prime Minister Narendra Modi is that let us sit down at the table and have serious and sincere talks to resolve our burning issues like Kashmir,” he said.

He said Pakistan and India are neighbours and have to “live with each other.” “We have learnt our lesson and we want to live in peace provided we are able to resolve our genuine problems. We want to alleviate poverty, achieve prosperity, and provide education and health facilities and employment to our people and not waste our resources on bombs and ammunition, that is the message I want to give to Prime Minister Modi,” Sharif said.

Meanwhile, India has always maintained that “talks and terror” cannot go hand in hand.

New Delhi in November last year had also lashed out at Islamabad for raking up the issue of Kashmir during a United Nations debate terming it as “desperate attempts to peddle falsehoods”.

With inputs from agencies

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